688 Yuan, 425% Surge! Who Truly Wins Behind China’s Most Profitable New IPO, Moore Threads?

At 9:30 a.m. on December 5, 2025, the ticker “688795” flashed for the first time on the STAR Market’s trading hall screens. Moore Threads Intelligent Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., hailed as “China’s First Domestic GPU Stock,” opened at an astonishing 650 yuan per share—soaring 468.78% above its 114.28-yuan issue price. Within the first minute of trading, the stock was pushed to its intraday peak of 688 yuan, a surge of more than 500%.

But the frenzy proved volatile. After touching its high, the share price quickly retreated, swinging sharply throughout the session before closing at 600.50 yuan—a narrowed but still remarkable 425.26% gain. The turnover rate reached a staggering 85.49%, signaling one clear reality: most successful subscribers—whether retail investors who won the lottery online or institutions allocated shares offline—chose to cash out their substantial paper profits on day one.

A private equity fund manager remarked after the session, “The opening price almost exhausted all short-term optimism. This wasn’t value discovery—it was a real-time stress test of scarcity and sentiment.”

The script for this dramatic debut was written long before listing day. Due to allocation rules, only 30% of shares were available to the public online. With more than 4.8 million households participating, the winning rate collapsed to just 0.036%. Each winning number entitled the subscriber to 500 shares. At the closing price, that single allotment produced a jaw-dropping profit of 243,100 yuan.

While retail investors celebrated their rare windfall, the real protagonists had already secured their positions in the quieter battleground of offline institutional allocations.

Allocation Logic: How Wealth Was Distributed

Moore Threads’ lengthy “Preliminary Offline Allocation and Online Balloting Results” filing reveals a carefully engineered distribution system.

Category A investors—public mutual funds, social security funds, pension and annuity managers, and insurance capital—accounted for nearly 90% of all valid offline subscriptions and received 98.44% of the offline allocation. Category B institutional investors shared the remaining 1.56%.

A senior market participant told Economic Observer that the structure is designed to encourage long-term investment and stabilize trading. In this case, it resulted in an intense concentration of Moore Threads’ shares in the hands of large, steady capital.

Public mutual funds emerged as the biggest winners. Industry giant E Fund mobilized 385 products to subscribe, ultimately securing 3.8373 million shares—roughly 439 million yuan at issue value. Southern Asset Management followed closely with 3.5083 million shares.

But the most intricate mechanism was the “tiered lock-up” requirement. Category A investors were divided into A1, A2, and A3 depending on their lock-up commitments. The most aggressive group, A1, pledged to lock up 70% of their shares for nine months and received 93.92% of all offline allocations.

In other words, the largest paper winners could not sell most of their holdings on day one. Their windfalls remain theoretical, and their true test lies in how the stock performs over the next 6–9 months.

A chief investment officer at a southern public fund commented, “This system ties everyone together. We share the initial premium, but we must also bear the volatility, preventing disorderly sell-offs at the outset.”

Different Ledgers, Different Fortunes

When the closing bell rang, a massive maze of inflated valuations came into view.

At 600.50 yuan per share, the offline-allocated 39.2 million shares swelled to a combined market value of 23.5 billion yuan—up from a 4.5-billion-yuan subscription cost. Total paper gains approached 19.1 billion yuan, with Category A long-term capital claiming the vast majority.

Among them, public mutual funds dominated. E Fund’s estimated day-one gain neared 1.87 billion yuan, while Southern Fund earned roughly 1.71 billion yuan. Together, they amassed over 3.5 billion yuan in paper profits—numbers that could meaningfully lift their year-end rankings. Some star individual funds, such as Dongfanghong Allocation Select, recorded single-product gains exceeding 7.5 million yuan, creating a visible “step-up” in their NAV charts.

Quantitative hedge funds also stood out within Category B. Their share of total allocation was small, but their scaled product lines and systematic bidding strategies earned them meaningful gains. HFT Quant received 61,300 shares; Yanfu Investment about 60,000 shares; and NineSquare almost 39,700. Their day-one profits ranged from roughly 19 million to 30 million yuan.

Subjective long-only private funds also participated, though in smaller volumes. Thirty-nine such firms with 246 products received allocations. For instance, Lin Yuan Investment’s 39 products collectively received just 3,014 shares.

Retail investors who won online balloting collectively earned an estimated 8.2 billion yuan in paper gains. Combined with institutions, the first-day theoretical profits surpassed 27 billion yuan.

Short-Term Cheers, Long-Term Questions

Beyond the debut fireworks, a quieter debate began. Based on the closing price, Moore Threads’ market capitalization approached 300 billion yuan. Yet the company is still in heavy loss-making mode—2024 revenue was 438 million yuan, with net losses of 1.618 billion yuan; the first half of 2025 saw another 271 million yuan lost. The disconnect between near-record valuation and lack of profitability is striking.

Interviews conducted by Economic Observer revealed sharply differing views.

Optimists argue that the valuation reflects China’s overwhelming confidence in domestic GPU substitution and in Moore Threads' long-term breakthroughs. In an era where AI computing power is a strategic national priority, its symbolic and strategic value outweighs near-term financials.

Cautious voices counter that the price may have already priced in several years of future growth. The surge, they argue, was driven more by scarcity, sentiment, and low float rather than fundamental performance.

Chen Xingwen, chief strategist at Kurosaki Capital, said that large-cap IPOs often face short-term volatility and even losses after day-one purchases. But over the long run, companies aligned with domestic tech substitution trends still offer compelling potential.

Senior Pangoal Institute researcher Jiang Han added that two pillars will determine sustainability: the company’s ability to deliver revenue and narrow losses, and the pace at which its developer ecosystem matures. A weak ecosystem risks relegating Moore Threads to a “fallback option,” limiting customer adoption and revenue growth.

For institutional investors with mandatory lock-ups, the real battle has only begun. Category A institutions are effectively forced into long-term shareholding. Their strategy now shifts from short-term IPO arbitrage to long-term company monitoring—tracking product milestones, customer wins, and revenue expansion. The next 6–9 months will be crucial. Any disappointment in technology progress or commercialization could erode their locked-in gains.

Meanwhile, quantitative funds and unrestricted investors have far greater flexibility. Some likely realized profits during the first-day volatility. Their ongoing participation will depend heavily on real-time models assessing volatility, liquidity, and sentiment.

Moore Threads’ debut has become more than a company event—it is a lens into the current state of China’s STAR Market and its hard-tech investment ecosystem.

A research director at a Shanghai private fund noted that pricing hard-tech companies is inherently complex. Traditional valuation frameworks often break down for firms with high R&D costs, steep technology barriers, and delayed profitability. Prices instead blend industrial trends, national strategy, scarcity value, and market psychology. The resulting volatility demands investors with deeper industry insight and stronger risk tolerance.

A technology analyst at a Beijing mid-sized fund argued that Moore Threads’ blockbuster IPO will boost confidence across China’s hard-tech pipeline. More companies with core technology and strategic value are now likely to receive strong investor support when they go public.

In reality, this spectacle is not simply about who profited most on listing day. The larger question is whether today’s locked-in capital will eventually translate into genuine momentum for domestic GPU breakthroughs. For every participant, the celebration must give way to deeper analysis—of technology pathways, commercialization prospects, and the broader evolution of China’s semiconductor industry.

Moore Threads has completed a high-profile first chapter in its capital-market story. The chapters that follow will determine how much of today’s enthusiasm transforms into long-term industrial progress. Economic Observer will continue to follow its journey.